Banks in the U.S. are cutting credit lines to energy companies and forcing firms to cough up more collateral to guard against fallout from the past year’s plunge in oil prices, a Federal Reserve survey found.

U.S. Rig Count is down 27 rigs from last week to 905, with oil rigs down 24 to 679, gas rigs down 3 to 222, and miscellaneous rigs unchanged at 4.

Last December Moscow took Europe by surprise with an announcement that South Stream, a 63 billion cubic metre (bcm) pipeline designed to bring Russian natural gas to southern Europe across the Black Sea would be scrapped and replaced with a pipeline of similar capacity that would cross Turkey and stop at its border with Greece.

The head of oil in Saudi Arabia reaffirmed the country's commitment to supplying oil resources to meet increasing demand in Asia, Reuters reported. Oil Minister Ali al-Naimi recently visited China and said that oil demand in Asia is still strong, citing the increasing need for energy as the middle class grows.

Large quantities of shale gas, tight gas and coalbed methane are being discovered and extracted in the vast Western Canadian Sedimentary Basin (WCSB), which covers southwestern Manitoba, southern Saskatchewan, Alberta (AB), northeastern British Columbia (BC) and the southwest corner of the Northwest Territories.

Imports from the European Union (EU) will drop because Russian gas is now competitive, according to state-run NAK Naftogaz Ukrainy. Flows from Slovakia, the EU’s biggest supplier to Ukraine, may fall by a quarter from May, Tomas Marecek, the chairman of Slovak grid operator Eustream, said.

Russian oil and gas condensate production, among the world's largest, remained at a post-Soviet record level of 10.71 million barrels per day in April, underpinned by a recent recovery in oil prices, Energy Ministry data showed on Saturday.

Monthly average crude oil prices increased in February. The average domestic crude oil first purchase price rose $1.29 (3.0 percent), to $44.35 per barrel.

A widening corruption probe in China has ensnared another oil executive, this time the number two man at state owned Sinopec.A widening corruption probe in China has ensnared another oil executive, this time the number two man at state owned Sinopec.

Chevron Corp. reported first-quarter earnings of $2.6 billion, down from $4.5 billion in first-quarter 2014. Sales and other operating revenues in first quarter totaled $32 billion, compared with $51 billion a year earlier.